Control technology of this kind has been disclosed in patent documents 1 to 4.
According to the disclosure of patent document 1, a fingerprint recognition device is mounted on a forklift. The operator has their own fingerprint read by the fingerprint recognition device after turning ON the key switch of the forklift. The fingerprint recognition device judges whether the fingerprint is legitimate. The judgment result of the fingerprint recognition device is reported to the control unit in the forklift. The control unit permits operation by turning on the power of the forklift when a judgment result to the effect that the fingerprint is legitimate is received.
According to the disclosures of patent documents 2 and 3, a person with a forklift operator qualification possesses an IC tag that indicates that they are a licensed person. This IC tag is fitted into the person's work shoes, for example. The forklift is provided with a communication antenna which is for wirelessly communicating with the IC tag and which is connected to the control controller in the forklift. When the key switch of the forklift is ON, the power of the control controller in the forklift is ON and the control controller attempts to detect the IC tag via the communication antenna. If the IC tag is detected, this means that a licensed person has boarded and, therefore, the control controller turns on a relay for opening and closing the output signal line of the key switch to turn ON the power of the forklift to permit operation thereof.
According to the disclosure of patent document 4, a memory is fitted into the operation key of construction machinery and an authentication code is stored in the memory. When the key switch is turned ON as a result of the operator inserting an operation key in the key switch of the construction machinery, the control device in the construction machinery reads the authentication code from the memory in the operation key and compares the authentication code with an authentication code that was pre-stored by the control device. If the result of the comparison is a match, the control device validates the power ON signal output by the key switch to turn ON the power of the construction machinery and enables an engine start by turning ON the relay that opens and closes the line of the starter signal from the key switch.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Application Laid Open No. 2000-351598    [Patent Document 2] Japanese Application Laid Open No. 2004-189424    [Patent Document 3] Japanese Application Laid Open No. 2004-189451    [Patent Document 4] Japanese Application Laid Open No. 2001-82010